As a machine to machine (M2M) technology is widely popularized, increasingly more data is transmitted between user equipment (UE) and an access network device. If the access network device needs to send data to UE that is in an idle state, a non-synchronous state, or a loose synchronous state, the access network device first needs to page the UE.
In the prior art, a process of paging the UE by the access network device includes: The UE usually establishes a radio link to the access network device in a random access manner after receiving paging information sent by the access network device, and the UE can send paging response information to the access network device only after the UE establishes the radio link to the access network device in the random access manner, so that the access network device and the UE can perform a subsequent data transmission process.
However, in the foregoing paging process, the UE establishes the radio link to the access network device by means of random access. Consequently, there are a plurality of times of signaling exchange between the UE and the access network device, a relatively large quantity of network resources are occupied, and data transmission efficiency is low.